Classics Revealed

How to build a very cool all electric car on a Sam’s Club budget

Earlier this week we featured THIS story where we compared a Nissan Leaf to a replica Porsche Speedster.

The Leaf can be yours for $35K minus the $7500 Federal Tax credit while the Porsche eSpeedster will set you back $59,000K minus a $6000 state tax credit.

But what if you want to go EV green on a Sam’s Club budget?

Elbert, from Texas, sent us these photos of his all electric commuter car that he built for under $15,000.

Elbert writes, “My car is based on a 1970 Volkswagen beetle. The roof and the top of the rear section are an old kit that is still being produced.

The fenders, visor, and hood are also aftermarket parts still available. This a fairly simple conversion. I am using a kit also purchased on line at.e-volks.com. Batteries are 12 volt deep cycle marine from SAM’ CLUBS. Top speed so far is about 76 MPH and the range is in the 40 mile area.

There are a lot of variables that affect the range such as temp, speed, and grade of the road..(up hill uses more power than downhill) But the good part is I can plug it into any 110V outlet and charge complete from very low to full in about 4-5 hours…..I drove it to work last for a couple of months for less than 5 bucks a week.

I am probably 12-14K into the car..but much of that …probably around half…has been spent getting the body / interior and etc together…..the conversion has been pretty inexpensive….that is why sams club batteries and a lot of other inexpensive solutions were chosen….I wanted to see if I could create a green toy for about the same money as a like gas powered item…I think I have hit pretty close.

I stopped driving it then to redo the layout of the batteries. It finally runs and drives again and I am finishing up the insides to start driving it to work again….It has been a lot of fun…like the Porsche in your article…GREEN can still be fun and not that expensive.”